Crumbs – it looks like the case for doctoring bread with folic acid is being revisited

But why not let us buy a loaf without the folic acid?

Old news about folic acid has been refreshed in a headline in the NZ Herald today.

The headline advises us: Folic acid in bread ‘reduces’ birth risks

But we have known that for a long time.

Alf recalls Annette King launching Folate Awareness Day more than 10 years ago.

She said it was encouraging that the number of babies born in New Zealand with spina bifida continued to decrease.

The number of children born with spina bifida halved in the period between 1988 and 1999. Of all the live births last year, 17 babies were born with this condition, and about 10 still births a year are attributed to spina bifida. While this is still too many, it is an improvement on previous years.

Then she brought folic acid into the picture.